For Seniors

Senior Links

  • National Institute of Drug Abuse Articles

Screening, Treatment Concepts about Elder substance abuse: http://www.nida.nih.gov/whatsnew/meetings/bbsr/prevention.html

What you can do if someone you love has a problem with alcohol or drugs:  See DAPCAT Home Page for “Getting Help Now.”

  •  Overview Paper about Elders and Alcohol Abuse:

 

Elder’s Alcohol Abuse Needs More Public Attention

 

            Substance abuse in our elderly population is an issue which is usually not taken seriously enough. Prescription drugs, street drugs, and alcohol are all substances which elders abuse, however alcohol abuse is the most problematic.  Alcohol abuse often can lead to further isolation and advanced physical hardships. Serious secondary problems and huge fincial costs are linked to elder substance abuse. This issue is real, debilitating, costly, and needs more public attention.  

            General stereotypes about elders include that they are the mature, wise, and nurturing.  The average person wouldn’t normally expect the serious problems of substance abuse in a grandparent figure. Writer/researcher, Peter Bourne claims that, “Perhaps the biggest problem in attempting to deal with the issue of drug use in the elderly is the almost total lack of awareness by the general population…”(P. xv Drugs and the Elderly). Drug and alcohol problems are usually associated with our younger more niaive generations. Bourne explains that, “our view of drug use as predominantly a youth phenomenon is misleading.”… “More abused than all other drugs put together, alcohol is clearly identified as the drug of older generations and is certainly the cause of the greatest social and individual cost”(P. xii).  There are many statistics that offer evidence of increased alcohol abuse after the age of 60.  Sheldon Zimberg M.D. exclaimed that although the presence of alcohol abuse decreased to 17 per 1,000 for the age-group fifty-five to sixty-five years old, there was a peak prevalence of 22 per 1,000 at the sixty-five to seventy-four-year age group (P. 29 Drugs and the Elderly). Jin Zhang and Ronald R. Watson also claim that the rates of alcohol abuse declined with age, up until the age of sixty. From there, the rates began to increase for those older than sixty, and were particularly noticeable for men age seventy-five and older (P. 113 Alcohol and Coffee Use in the Aging).  According to the 2004 DASIS Report, in 2001, 58,000 persons ages 55 or older were admitted to publicly funded substance abuse treatment centers…clearly a problem. 

So, why does the elder population resort to alcohol abuse?   Perhaps to escape feeling of loneliness, isolation, and chronic physical debilitation.  As people enter their 5th and 6th decades, many lose their spouses and friends to illness of death.  With one’s primary support system gone, identity can quickly disintegrate.  Apathy, depression and isolation can follow.  Beyond psychological hardships, many elders lose their ability to function physically.  Immobility can lead to stagnation.  Retirement can also facilitate isolation and stagnation.  Once retired, a whole productive routine and the associated support system can suddely disappear to be replaced by boredom and isolation.   If our older citizens don’t rejoin society in a new healthy role, they can become frustrated and give up.  For those who don’t make the healthy livestyle adaptation, you might think that adult care facilities might provide an answer.  As wonderful as many adult retirement communities can be, elders have little or no supervision when they return to their apartments.  Residents can drink at will, and many do until their secrets are revealed…often because of a medical crisis.  Catherine Marie Alexander explains, “feelings of loneliness and isolation have been found to contribute to alcoholism in the elderly” (P 1).  Alcohol is a depressant, not a recommended coping agent.

Sooner or later, for anybody, alcohol abuse will lead to a lot of negative physical effects.  Now realize the biological changes which older generations face,  and you will realize they increased sensitive to alcohol and its effects on tissues and organs such as the liver, brain, digestive organs, blood vessals, etc…. Numerous medical treatments of diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and depression, are less effective in older adults who use alcohol on a regular basis.  Due to age related changes in an elder’s body composition, equivalent amounts of alcohol produce higher blood alcohol concentrations in aged people.  Also, as people become older, more medications are often taken to treat all those aliments associated with aging.  Bourne explains that, “Of particular significance is the effect of combining drugs with heavy alcohol consumption, which in the elderly can have disastrous results” (P xv).  There are many drug side effects that are caused by alcohol abuse in the elderly population.  

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition, our nations mental health diagnostic manual, defines Alcohol Abuse as a maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress as manifested by one or more of four markers: 1) Failure to fulfill major role obligations 2) Recurrent use in physically hazardous situations 3) Substance-related legal problems 4) Continued use despite persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems.  Yes, by definition, alcohol abuse involves social, occupational, and or physical problems.  Furthermore, Ronald K. Watson explains that, alcohol affects neurological and mental functions, and cognitive impairments are accentuated by alcohol use.  Once impared the ability of elderly people to regulate or cease use is diminished.  So, a struggle can develop, and usually doesn’t end until social intervention and all the costs therein associated.  

 An article published in Journal of the American Medical Association stated that elderly people are hospilized for alcohol-related problems at the same rate as for myocardial infraction, at considerable cost to Medicare.  Generally, about 15 to 20 million Americans suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence. This leads to annual losses of more than $80 billion. Approximately 21% of all the intensive care unit admissions are directly related to alcohol and 20 to 40% of all persons admitted to general hospitals have alcohol-linked problems. According to a 2001 DASIS Report, in 1999, adults ages 55 or older comprised approximately 58 million people in the US.  The aging of the baby boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) will cause that number to almost double by 2030, reaching 108 million. Further more, a 2000 NHSDA report states that the baby boom generation has higher rates of lifetime alcohol and drug use than did the previous generation.  Therefore, the increase of the elderly population means that the number of older people who abuse alcohol is on the rise. Health service providers are advised to improve their screening and treatment methods and refer troubled patients to services in order to be able to adequately deal with these troubled patients. Family members are also encouraged to  learn more about their elders’ alcohol consumption habits, and to help educate them to the differences between social use and costly consequences. 

Thanks to contributing writer: Katherine Findlay, Long Beach, CA